Tuesday, March 19, 2013

While it is still fresh in the memory, here was the album I made using microquilling:

Lots of people askied me how I made that flower. Well, I don't know how it is supposed to be made but here is my take on making this flower :)

For those with unstable/slow Internet connections, here are the snapshots :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Friday, March 15, 2013

I am back after an eternity...................apologies. I haven't been well and then, there was tons to catch up on. And there has been a bit of restructuring of my life. More is to come but due news will be posted as and when there is something to post about :)

One fine day, I get a call from Delhi, an enquiry for a quilled album cover. And the client was very clear about what she wanted me to do. She sent me example photos and told me exactly how the cover had to be made. All good. I asked about the size, it was 6" x 6". Ahan! For a change, I get an offer for a 'small' project (basically, my mind refuses to function while working with anything smaller than 10" x 10")......I agree. The album cover was sent to me by courier and imagine my shock! The 6" x 6" was the "total" area of the album. It has rivets on it AND the area where I had to write text was a mere 2.5" x 2.5"!!!!! I nearly considered telling my client I can't do it but then comes Katarzyna (whom I lovingly call Kate) with her coffee inchies, to prompt me into believing that I could do it. She even came up with a cute name for it: Microquilling! Oh boy, you can't really beat a scientist out of me (not yet, at least) :D

I rolled my sleeves up and got started! But well, the reference images the client had sent me were Yulia's work! And it is NO joke to emulate that. I was honestly reluctant to even attempt it because of my inherent respect for people's originality........so, I just cursorily looked at the images and set off on my own! Luck had never presented an opportunity for me to try alphabets in this style and I did try it. I can't say I am happy with them but a 2.7 cm by 1.7 cm alphabet is hardly a place for me to try to boost my confidence! :( I must attempt something bigger soon :)

After a lot of back and forth with the client and "editing" in quilled text (my first actually), the piece is complete. It's a 60th B'day gift for my client's father! I sure hope he likes it as I've never before spent 11 hours in making a piece that fits in my palm :) (none of my projects so far have had the fortune to fit in my palm really :D)........

I couldn't stop clicking the images and hence, the barrage :D

I love microquilling for the fact that the entire project took precisely 23 A4 size strips AND 11 hours of work :) Fascinating, isn't it? And even more, my sister thought that those "blue streaks" were pencil shading! I think, THAT is crowning glory :) :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Friday, March 8, 2013

I meant to keep this post very short but there is so much to say about this project..........so here goes my 'story' with this project :)

When an eye doctor approached me for a "piece" for her clinic, a hunt for a thought started. She narrowed it down to a clock! Step 1 out of my way. But I realized later that that was a very small step! My fancy took flight and I thought, Voila, why not an eye shaped clock! I proposed the idea and my client (oh dear, she's a friend now!) liked it. I made a sketch (and you'll see how crude it was) and sent it to her. Approval! Good good......

But all was good until I got started. Finding a carpenter who would saw a frame that shape was a task tougher than I thought. My usual framing guy said a flat no. And then, serendipity steps in. I was just walking past a plywood shop and decided to walk in to enquire. The carpenter looked doubtful (and almost eyed me with the "Are you mad or something?" looks) but he agreed to trying it out. He wouldn't, but, draw the shape. So, there I was, with my son's sketch pen and a piece of wood in front of me, drawing a crude eye. Thanks to a sketching background, it soon began to look like an eye. The carpenter was unimpressed though. A couple of corrections and a bit of back and forth later, he gave me the frame. Ahan! Looked exciting.

Next step...........the iris. I needed a template. Google is always God Rescue! I googled, liked something, downloaded and printed. But somehow, it just didn't feel right. And trust me, I have NEVER spent this much time on deciding upon a colour scheme for any project. At one time, I was tempted to call my client to tell her I can't do this. It just wasn't happening. But then, I have a miraculous circle of friends and one of them has the most mesmerizing eyes ever! A call to her and she agreed to sending a close-up image of her eyes. She did, God bless her and I finally took off. Paint was bought, outlines were painted.......and bingo! I didn't have the required colour background :( No project of mine has EVER faced this many hurdles........

But then, those impressive Daler Rowney and Faber Castell pencil colour sets came to rescue. Almost 10 iterations later, I had the colours I wanted. Neha honey, your eyes are magic, until I had to draw them! :D :D

At the last step, namely, painting the lashes, came the viral infection!! The worst I've ever had. 3 days in bed, nursing a horrible cold and cough. The cough got so bad that my throat was parched and my ribs ached from the non-stop coughing. With shaky hands, I managed to paint the lashes and add the clock hands. The clock now sits safely in the client's house but this piece will always remain memorable to me. Not because I think it's particularly well made but because I did EVERYTHING in it myself, except the frame cutting and glass polishing. The lashes have been cut from an aluminium sheet using a heavy duty sheet cutter, I fixed the clamps myself (for holding the glass), hammered the lashes in place, painted every single square inch myself. But this piece will also remain a reminder of how it shook my confidence. I think, once in a while, it is necessary to get these kind of pieces to scare yourself into non-belief and then, learn to conquer self-doubts. I sincerely want to thank my husband, who would just not relent and push me farther for doing the best I could with this project. Any idea which he didn't think was up to the mark was ruthlessly scrapped. If not for his honest feedback, the project would've looked very different from how it looks now :) A HUGE thanks to Neha, for the image of her eyes :) And to Karishma, for putting up with the delays and allowing me the freedom to choose how I work on this project........

And after all the banter, here is the image of the ever watchful eye, ticking away to glory :) The clock measures 25 inches in width (eye lashes are extra) and ~ 12 inches in height (eye lashes extra). It is a lousy photo, I know but this was all I could manage with having somehow finished it in time, in spite of the illness. I don't know how clear it is from this image but the pupil is beehived in chocolate brown colour with the white 'reflection' in beehive too. The 'lines' jutting out radially inwards and outwards are 160 gsm black, green and brown paper, tapered to create an iris-like effect :)

Now, some work-in-progress photos :)

1. The "crude" sketch :D

2. The 'frame' (after the carpenter probably gave up on me as a nut case)

3. What I had initially planned to make (but it just didn't feel right!)

4. With the sketching and pupil done....

5. The 3, 6, 9 and 12 are outlined

6. The eye lashes attached, but not yet painted.....

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)